The standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions overshadowed trade talks opening on Bali yesterday between leaders of Muslim-majority countries, with snipers on rooftops, anti-terror squads patrolling the resort and security posts on the beach.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to discuss ways to boost economic and political cooperation, alleviate poverty, restructure debt and develop alternative energy sources.
Heads of state from Nigeria, Turkey and Malaysia and government ministers from Egypt and Bangladesh also took part in the daylong Developing Eight (D-8) summit on Indonesia's tropical Bali island, which has in recent years been hit by a series of al-Qaeda-linked terrorist attacks.
PHOTO: AFP
Though the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions was not officially on the agenda, Ahmadinejad sought support from his Islamic brothers on the sidelines.
He says his country's nuclear program was only aimed at generating energy, but Washington believes the real purpose is to build weapons.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said after holding a hastily arranged meeting with the Iranian leader that he supported a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
"Dialogue is the best way," he told reporters before slipping back into the main conference room. "We should not create another crisis."
Fears that Iran was trying to build nuclear warheads were aggravated on Friday, when diplomats said UN inspectors may have found traces of highly enriched weapons-grade uranium on equipment from an Iranian research center linked to the military.
The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging the confidential information, cautioned that they were still awaiting confirmation from other laboratory tests.
Ahmadinejad vowed to continue to battle against the West for the right to develop new technologies, saying it is every country's right and in the interests of the D-8, which represent 14 percent of the world's population.
The meeting on Bali occurred eight months after suicide bombers walked into three crowded restaurants, killing 20 people.
The deadly strike blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, followed twin nightclub bombings in 2002 that killed 202 mostly foreign tourists.
Security was tight, with snipers stationed on rooftops and the top floor of the five-star beach-side hotel that was hosting the meeting
Bags were X-rayed, anti-terror police dressed in black patrolled the grounds, and makeshift military posts were stationed along the beach.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
RSS